Hello! It's that time again. You might've seen a few reviews going live right about now for the Diablo 4 : Vessel of Hatred expansion, but unfortunately not one from us (or from our friends at VG247 and Rock Paper Shotgun ). As ever, the usual caveats apply here: we mean it when we say with each of these cases that we are absolutely not entitled to review code; it's a privilege, not a right.
Ultimately which outlets get review code and when is entirely at the discrection of the publisher - it's their game, and it's totally their decision as to how they handle advanced access to it. That said, we also have a duty to keep our readers in the loop. In this case, it's that we actually did receive code earlier this week (unlike our sister sites).
Only, we were told that code wouldn't provide access until launch day, this coming 8th October. And then subsequently, and slightly oddly, that review actually code wouldn't go out until Monday 7th. It's all a bit odd.
But hey, that's video games - and ultimately, no big deal. The good news is that we will of course get access to the game at some point, and when we do you can expect our in-depth thoughts as ever (just a bit later than we'd hoped). Until then, you can check out or original Diablo 4 review from last summer, where we gave it four stars and I described it as "a designer's game at heart, built on intricacy and depth," only one where "a sense of fearful overcompensation holds it back.
" Or, we've our many in-depth Diablo 4 guides.